Friday night, August 1
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Tonight featured a friend of the satsang sharing an extended question that was told in an amusing manner. What followed was a compelling and direct upadesa on the power of jnani’s words. Amma said, _Their words are truth. It comes out of the power of truth, Satyavrata.
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The satsang commenced with a question read by Amma’s aide.
Question: On the one hand it is said that consciousness knows nothing and does nothing while on the other hand it is said that consciousness knows everything and does everything. Are there two consciousnesses or how to understand this seeming paradox?
AMMA: Consciousness is the absolute knowing. In its absolute sense it knows nothing but if you know anything here the knowing comes from the absolute. So it knows everything. The very sense of knowing is the consciousness. So we say it knows everything. But in its absolute sense it knows nothing, there is nothing, no everything in it. If you know anything apart from it, the knowing comes from the consciousness so it knows. Make sense?
Question: I am still having trouble understanding this paradox. With Bhagavan, there are many stories of him knowing things he could not have known. I know you have also spoken about having knowledge of things that are going to happen. Is there some universal knowledge that a Jnani can access from the relative plane?
AMMA: That is what I was trying to say now. The consciousness is the knowing. If there is any knowing of it, it comes from it. It knows it all. Sometimes it comes to the Jnani, sometimes it doesn’t. That knowing comes from the consciousness because it is all inclusive. And that knowing is not mental. It is difficult to explain. It is all knowing yet not knowing. It comes from the absolute and sometimes it doesn’t come. Nothing can exist without that knowing. The knowing is perfect. Knowing is not of the mental. It is the very nature and base of consciousness. So it knows it all or it knows nothing.
Amma noted the following questioner was in a good mood! His storytelling in the question was skillful and amusing. This is the abridged version.
Question: I read the story where Krishna, who had ten wives and ten children, gave instruction to his cousin Uddhava to declare that Krishna is a Nitya Brahmachari. The declaration would help Uddhava to cross a raging river that was preventing his journey to continue. When he got to the river, Uddhava declared in a loud voice, _If Krishna is a Nitya Brahmachari, please separate your waters and let me through._ The waters parted and Uddhava walked his horse through the river and came to the other side. My question is: How can a man with ten wives, ten children be a Nitya Brahmachari?
AMMA: (First checking with her aides and then asking directly) Did you create this story? (laughing) Okay, there are many stories. Anyway, the whole lesson is that Krishna was not a body. If your identity is with the body, you have children, wife, all that. The body has so many different things, which you say, relatives, friends, everything. So as long as you think Krishna is a body, then Krishna has ten wives, children, all that. But for Krishna, he was never connected to this body. He was not the body. So it is the Self is Nitya Brahmachari. The Self never touched anything. It is as pure as it is eternally. In that sense, yes, the Self is Nitya Brahmachari.
You see Krishna gave that instruction and so it happened. His words have power. A jnani is known as Satyavrata. Satyavrata means the one who is ever established in the satyam, the truth. So whatever they say becomes the truth. Their words, their actions, their speech, because they ever worship the truth. That’s why when they speak a word, even for the absolute or in relative, it has power, the power of truth.
That’s why we listen to Bhagavan’s past interactions with people, every word. If that instruction is received, it’s true. Because their words are truth. It comes out of the power of truth, Satyavrata. Even a lie becomes a truth. May not be a fact, but it becomes a truth. Because they are ever in worship of truth and truth itself. And the quality of the truth is ever seen in them. Maybe today it may not look like a truth, but later it will look like, ‘yes, so this has happened’. Why? That is the power of truth. It’s not coming out of a mind, or an ego.
The quality of the light is to shine. And wherever it touches, it becomes visible. But the light itself doesn’t know where it is touching. It shines. It shines on anything and everything. But the light itself is not knowing where it touches. Its nature is to shine. So the consciousness, it shines everywhere, but nowhere. In the absolute sense of consciousness, it knows nothing. But its nature is to shine. It makes everything visible.
With these words Amma finished the upadesa. Again Amma asked, ‘Does it make sense?’ Many nodded in agreement.